Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
Haven’t spent to much time on W facing high elevation terrain this year so it was time for a look. Skied W, NW facing slopes between Cardifff Pass through Holy Toledo and down past the Halllway. We took time to dig a pit on Holy Toledo at 9500ft, NW facing there’s a pretty deep snowpack in this area for this time of year but we wanted to see what was at the bottom of it. Most of the pack is a fairly uniform one finger slab with faceted loose snow at the surface but at the bottom there is still 8 to 10 inches of facets/ depth hoar that is dry, loose and doesn’t seem to be gaining much strength. The slab is fairly stout and thick and in my opinion it would need a thin rocky weak spot, a big load of new snow or maybe a larger trigger such as a snowmobile to collapse it. As soon as we moved down canyon to the more W facing lower elevation slopes the facets layer was way less pronounced and the slab was more relaxed, and snow pack depth was quite a bit less.
photo: surface hoar that’s pretty prevalent in protected areas and a quick video of the snow pit, showing what the slab is resting on.
Snowpack
Recrystallized, faceted powder on the surface with boot deep ski penetration, wind skin and crust on some of the upper W facing terrain, damp or melt freeze crust on the S end of the compass.